Songs about baseball beyond ‘Centerfield’

The “Boys of Summer” are back on the brick dust and baseball season is underway, locally and in the big leagues.

Baseball is truly the background music of summer, and the Sonoma Valley has had a big part in it all. Old-timers will remember when we had no major league ball on the West Coast, as the Giants and Dodgers didn’t get here until the late 1950s – but there was a big baseball following here for the Pacific Coast League, with the Oakland Oaks and the San Francisco Seals making their spring training homes here in the Valley at ballfields and resorts in Boyes Hot Springs. Many of the summer resorts in the Springs and El Verano were destinations for visiting fans at the turn of the century. Future legends like Joe DiMaggio and Lefty Gomez came up in the Pacific Coast League before moving to the Majors.

So what does all this have to do with music? Jazz has had many versions of itself; Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans and East and West coast styles, but there seems to be no argument where the word “jazz” originated – and that was right here in Boyes Hot Springs on March 8, 1913. On that date, “Scoop” Gleason was reporting on the Seals for the San Francisco Bulletin, when he wrote something akin to todays version of the “can of Whoopass”: Gleason wrote that the Seals had been “ … keeping their jazz in a can… and opening it at the tap of a gong…” It was later referred to by the local musicians, when asked, “What kind of music are you playing?”

“Oh, it’s just some jazz...”

With that in mind, here are eight great baseball songs, with a decidedly NorCal twist.

8. “Catfish” – Bob Dylan

Originally recorded in 1976 and meant for the “Desire” album, the track is a tribute to Oakland A’s pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter, but it didn’t make the cut until 1991 when it was released on the “Rare Recordings” compilation. Joe Cocker covered it in 1976 on his “Stingray” album

7. “Glory Days” – Bruce Springsteen

I guess technically this should be ranked higher, but since I’m not a big fan of “The Boss” and it’s my list, it goes here. Released in 1984 on the “Born In the USA” album, the song is not entirely about baseball, but harkens back to many memories of Springsteen’s formative years, which included baseball. The song hit No. 5 on the Billboard charts in the summer of 1985.

6. “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?” – Woodrow Johnson and Count Basie

Both writers released the song in 1949, and with the color barrier breaking it became an instant classic with baseball fans.

5. “Talkin’ Baseball” – Terry Cashman

This song was released during the baseball strike of 1981. Written in just 20 minutes, it reflects back on the glory days of baseball from the ‘50s to the ‘80s – as after the strike, for better or worse, baseball would never be the same.

4. “Say Hey” – The Treiners

The act was one of the crossover bands that was migrating popular music from swing to rock and roll, along the lines of Bill Haley, who was influenced by the band’s stage antics. Although this particular song didn’t chart, the act had many hits in the swing era.

3. “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio” – Alan Courtney and Ben Homer

Joe DiMaggio was larger than life and one of the biggest names in the mid-century baseball era. With his movie-star wife Marilyn Monroe, the couple were seen as all-American. In 1941, DiMaggio, fresh out of the Pacific Coast League, took baseball by storm. The song was released in the middle of DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak.

2. “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” – Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer

Written in 1908, the song, ironically, was written by two people who had never been to a baseball game. The “Seventh Inning Stretch” favorite was inspired by a sign at the Polo Grounds in New York where the Giants played, which simply said “Baseball Today.”

1. “Centerfield” – John Fogerty

Some might argue that #2 should be #1, but this song has taken over as the most popular baseball song ever. Fogerty is the only musician elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame for a song. The song was the title track of his comeback album. Most of the players mentioned in the song were center fielders.